Arrivederci Roma..............e Italia

Our last full day in Rome brought beautiful weather with the sun breaking out. It was a good thing, too, since Judy had had planned a pretty good walk in the morning. Today the main thing we were going to do was to meet up with our good family friends, Brunilde & Dino Alberti, her sister Silvana Fichera, and Irene Gianinni, who had traveled down to Rome from Arezzo to see us once again.

After a complimentary breakfast at our new hotel, we headed out to the Metro to take the subway to the Piazza del Popolo. We took some pictures there and also checked out the church on the square called S. Maria del Popolo.

Once we left Piazza del Popolo, we headed down Via Flaminia to Brunilde's house. When I checked on the internet the previous night where her house was in relation to this starting point, I discovered that it was approximately 3.5 miles down this road beyond the Ponte Milvio. I noticed right away that a tram ran down this street and I tried to talk Judy into riding this down the avenue. However, she was not having it. Oh well, it was a nice day after all.......

At the end of Via Flaminia is the Ponte Milvio which we found out is the oldest bridge over the Tiber River in Rome. It also has another unique feature......there are padlocks all over the place on this bridge. We later found out that legend has it that people go there to "lock their love" for one another.

We got to Brunilde's house right at the appointed hour, even after a stop down the street at one of the best bakeries we've seen on this trip. We just had to stop in and get some crostatas and amaretto cookies for the lunch we were going get at Bruni's house. It was great seeing Brunilde, Dino, Silvana & Irene. We visited with them for about 4 hours, which included one of the tastiest lunches that we had on this trip.

The lunch was appetizers of focaccia & supli (a breaded & fried rice ball stuffed with mozzarella), a veal saute with carrots & broccolini (you know what part of that that I didn't eat), and all of the desserts & pastries that I brought and Irene brought also. Oh, and of course, vino!

After we left, we headed back towards the Piazza del Popolo, but this time I was prepared. I had purchased tram tickets on the way there, so that we could use them for the journey back. You know, I didn't go to school just to eat my lunch. That ride was interesting because it just happened to take place right about the commute hour. Within one stop, that tram was trying to set the record for the most people squeezed onto one car. When we got to our stop, it must've looked like one of those circus cars that has the clowns pouring out of it for what seems like forever.

We made our way across town stopping at the Trevi Fountain, since Judy wanted to see it lighted up after dark...........which it now was. We ended up sitting there for quite some time gawking at all the people coming & going. At one point, I noticed that one man was making his way around the fountain slowly studying the water, not the fountain. When he got close, I could see that he had a metal rod that ran down his sleeve and he was palming the end of the rod that had a magnet at the end of it. Clearly he was going to fish some coins out of the fountain with this instrument. I watched him for a while, but it appeared that he moved on unsuccessfully, since most of the coins that were up close seemed to be Euro pennies.

After we left there, we decided to stop at a deli and get a bottle of wine, bread, some cold meats & cheese for dinner since we had to pack for an early morning wake up call. It turned out to be a good decision, since, while we ate,  we got to watch the festivities at the San Francisco Civic Center honoring the WORLD CHAMPION SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS.....will you ever get tired of saying that?..... that was streaming over the internet.

We get up at 6:00am tomorrow to be ready for the 6:45 ride to the airport to begin the trek back home. We arrive at about 9:45pm, which makes about 23 hours of traveling time when you add in the 8 hours we are picking up in time zone changes. I'm sure we are going to be a couple of tired puppies when we get back. We both had a great time and will always look forward to coming back to Italy once again.

Walking Around Rome

It’s Tuesday morning already and we are up again after our post game nap to join the group for breakfast. It wasn't easy going back to sleep after watching the Giants win the World Series! Mark is off to his meeting and I got ready to check out as we are changing hotels. We left the overpriced Excelcior for a Priceline great deal boutique hotel 5 minutes away called the Hotel Rex. The staff is very nice and we have free internet so we can keep blogging away through the last couple of days of our stay. I am feeling ready to go home.

My self guided walking Rome tour today took me to: Piazza Della Repubblica

Mussolini's Wedding Cake Building in the Piazza Venezia.

Santa Maria Maggiore is close to our hotel. It is the only church in Rome in which mass has been celebrated every day without interruption since the fifth century.

Campo de Fiori where you can get the best foccacia from Forno!

After hours of walking, I went back to hotel to meet up with Mark and get ready to join some friends for dinner at Giovannis. The food was excellent as was the wine which included 2 Nobile di Montepulciano, 1 Barolo, and 1 Brunello di Montalcino.

Touring Rome - The Catacombs & St. Pauls' Basilica

Monday morning started with the alarm being set for 1:00am for the Giants game....... which they won 4-0! After taking a nap we were up and at the BKR group breakfast at one of the Excelsior Hotel’s gathering rooms. This was the first day of Mark’s meetings and I was off on a “companion” tour via bus to Saint Paul’s Basilica, the Catacombs, and a pasta lunch at a lovely venue just outside Rome.

Monday was raining pretty much all day with a thunderstorm in the afternoon. Fortunately for us, the bus dropped us off and picked us up pretty close to each of our destinations. The first stop was Saint Paul’s Basilica which is located outside the walls of Rome. The Basilica was founded by a Roman Emperor over the burial place of Saint Paul. Apparently, in 2009 it was announced that carbon dating of bone fragments in the sarcophagus confirmed a date in the 1st or 2nd century so……… could it really be Paul the Apostle buried there? When we got to the basilica, preparations were being made for some kind of service and the choir was practicing. Being able to listen to them sing was a surprise treat.





Our next stop was the Catacombs. The ones we visited were carved through tufo, a soft volcanic rock, outside the boundaries of the city, because Roman law did not allow burial within city limits. I thought it was quite an appropriate tour for All Saint’s Day. I was disappointed we didn’t see any bones. Apparently, bones and ashes were buried in the catacombs. At the place we visited, we walked through former tomb-lined tunnels, with networks of galleries as many a few layers deep. You could see many smaller cut outs where babies were buried, infant mortality being pretty high. This tour is not for someone who is claustrophobic. One woman in our group walked in and walked right back out. I stayed very close to the guide. The thought of being lost in there made me nervous. There were 11 miles of tunnels! Unfortunately I can't put any pictures up here because no cameras were allowed there.

The last stop on the tour was lunch. We stopped at a lovely place (can’t remember the name) not far from the Catacombs that would be a great venue for a wedding reception. Two different kinds of pasta and a risotto was served after an insalata mista. For dessert, they served sorbets inside the skins/shells of what they were made from. The walnut sorbet was inside a walnut shell, fig sorbet inside the fig skin……….very tasty along with an impressive presentation.  And, yes, of course we had wine with lunch.

Mark and I both had much needed nap time back at the hotel before dinner. Tonight was the BKR Gala Dinner Dance……

Tour buses took us to the venue which was the very ornate Palazzo Brancaccio  Apparently it’s the last Roman Patrician Palace and is on one of the seven hills of Rome. The Palace was an amazingly luxurious place to have our gathering and they had so many staff members. They served dinner with white gloves on……a bit over the top.

First course was a delicious lasagna made with layers of sheets of fresh thin pasta. My Sea Bass was not so good but Mark did enjoy his veal entrée. The desserts were quite a production: with the lights out, the staff dressed in their tuxedos and white gloves (one hand behind their backs) paraded around the dining room with Baked Alaska flambé a glow in large serving dishes.

After a few dances we burned off a minimal amount of calories consumed and we were off on the second bus back to the hotel. Next on the agenda was to set our alarm for another 1AM wake up to watch the GIANTS WIN! After the game, Scott and Joe sent us pictures of the Giants celebration party on Chestnut Street in the Marina.

HOW ABOUT THOSE GIANTS!!!!